


Things Unsaid

by techbilt



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-04 03:30:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14583999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/techbilt/pseuds/techbilt
Summary: Optimus finds himself staring at Ratchet a lot more than he feels he should.





	Things Unsaid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cosmicat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmicat/gifts).



> This is a gift for Pleasedontgethurt.
> 
> She has been there for me for a while now and she means so much to me. She deserves so much more than anything I could possibly give her but I thought I'd try.

Sometimes Optimus would find himself staring at him.  Leering almost, he would have to scold himself and remove his gaze from the red and white medic to return to what he was doing.  Often times, more often than not recently Optimus found it was harder to tear his gaze away from Ratchet. 

The medic had always interested him.  Ratchet was kind and gentle while being a no-nonsense take no bullslag kind of mecha.  Optimus had always yearned to be the same way though could never find it with in his spark to do so.  He admired Ratchet for that. He admired the way his digits would graze over an injury, without feeling anything, though it was entirely possible he had shut off his pain receptors at the time.

Optimus liked Ratchet, a lot more than he probably should.  He knew that there was little to no chance that his feelings were returned, let alone if they could even work together once he admitted it to the other.  4 million years of having Ratchet as his CMO, being the only medic available to Team Prime in Jasper, Optimus couldn’t afford to put their team in jeopardy.  It would be improper even if the medic did return his feelings. They had no idea when the next medic would come to this planet, nor did they have any idea how long the war would last.  Tomorrow was never a given for the Prime, at any moment, during any battle Megatron could get the better of him and he could perish.

“Optimus?”

The Prime tears his optics away yet again from the medic at the ground bridge console.  He has no idea who is calling his name, nor for how long his name has been called. He can only hope that this was the first time this person has been attempting to get his attention.  He looks around, no bots are around, so it must have been one of the children that wants his attention. “Yes Raphael?”

“Are you okay? You seem…  _ spacy _ .”  The child is sitting on ground in front of the couch his laptop on the coffee table, he’s working on a program in an attempt to learn Cybertronian coding.  Something Ratchet has been more than happy to teach the boy, though when a problem occurs Optimus seems to be the one who more often than not helps him.

“I am fine Raphael, how are you doing on your studies?” It wasn’t a lie, Optimus was okay.  Nothing was wrong with him in the medical sense but he chided himself for not paying more attention to his surroundings.

Raf is quiet for a while, probably debating on if he wants to go along with the subject change.  “My homework for school is all done, so I’m working on a program with that new language Ratchet is teaching me, and I’m coming up with a problem for the datetime variables, and I can’t get these files to be copied from one area to another.”

Programming was not a skill many mecha had any more, his time as an archivist he had taught himself to make small programs, things like what Raf was building now on his laptop, but nothing the caliper of what Ratchet was used to compiling.  He was great at decrypting, he was able to pinpoint patterns and make sense of them, it was a valuable skill to have for a programmer, as well as an archivist. 

“Let me take a look at it.”

Raf watched Optimus lean over to get a better look at the source code.  He attempt to make Optimus’ life that much easier by swiveling his laptop do the Prime could look at the code straight on.  Both were silent for a while as Optimus attempted to decode what was wrong with the program. 

Optimus hummed before standing up thinking for a minute.  “You have imported the OS and Datetime libraries?” Raf only nods, scrolling back up to the top of the program showing the Prime what libraries he has imported for the Program.  Optimus hums again in response. “Then it has to be something along the lines of syntax.”

It took a while before the two were able to get to the bottom of the issues Raf was having with the code.  Debugging was a long tedious process, even for simple programs that merely cataloged and found items with in a list, this was taking the date, and making folders, a program that would Cybertronians who had a hard time creating and keeping memories by saving important memories on a seperate location, and external hard drive almost.

They were lucky to have figured it out in less than an hour, after a while, they both had thought about giving up and having Raf start all over again - because sometimes that was the only option.  THankfully Optimus was able to figure it out and the child was able to move on to the next exercise in the work book. Once he was certain Raf had a handle on the code and wouldn’t need any more assistance he returned to his station, looking over Project Iacon.  It was back to work, decrypting the coordinates that the council had hidden in an attempt to keep the artifacts out of the wrong hands.

Silence fell upon the three, Ratchet tinkering with the Ground bridge for when the others were ready to return, Raf typing on his keyboard working to impress Ratchet with his coding skills, and Optimus decrypting the Iacon database.  The silence was only disturbed by the activation of the ground bridge. That familiar tingle of the worm hole being made and stabilizing filled the air, the ground around them vibrating with the intense power the machine was harnessing and controlling it into the vortex.

Walking through the ground bridge was Bumblebee and Wheeljack, the two having gone on recon keep the Decepticons from causing too much trouble against their human charges.  The yellow and black mech spoke in Binary, using his speakers to do his talk. His vocoder damaged by the silver warlord not too long after Bumblebee had joined the ranks. Optimus knew it haunted Ratchet.  Every time the mech spoke, the fact he couldn’t save that part of Bumblebee.

“Yeah, it’s getting pretty late.  I probably should get home. Thanks Bee.  See you guys tomorrow after school.”

Optimus only nodded to the child before Bumblebee transformed opening his door for Raf and once he was safely inside taking him home, to run curbside duty for the rest of the night.  Wheeljack's gone off to bug Ratchet before he returns to his own quarters. For a moment Optimus worries, the nickname Wheeljack has given Ratchet is a human term of endearment, sunshine.  He worries that something is developing between the two, that he should just let his feelings for the medic go. Then Ratchet says the next line like clockwork every time:

“Don’t call me sunshine.”

It eased his spark every time he heard the medic say that to Wheeljack, to him signified there was a chance, no matter how small, the medic was single.  The ex-wrecker waved off the irate tone of the medic and walked off toward the back of the base, where the private quarters were, Locking himself inside his room, probably recharging for the next shift he had ahead of him.

Silence once more invaded their space, Optimus felt it was an awkward silence, the urge to speak to admit his feelings to the medic on the tip of his glossa, to the point where should he open up his mouth he might actually not be able to stop himself from blurting out those small but heavy words.

“Ratchet?”

He had said  _ out loud _ that didn’t he?  Primus damn it, he wasn’t supposed to actually say anything.  The world stopped and for a second Optimus had thought the medic hadn’t heard him, maybe he had said it only in his helm.  Where no one but himself, and possibly Primus could hear him.

“Yes, Optimus?” asked Ratchet.  The Prime can feel his spark beat throughout his entire frame, he’s nervous, he hasn’t thought any of this through and right now the cons out weight the pros for reasons for telling Ratchet.  It would put both of them at risk, it could be viewed as an abuse of the Prime power, it would be a conflict of interest on both their parts. The only pro telling Ratchet about his feelings was that Optimus and Ratchet  _ might _ be happy, and that was only if the medic returned the Primes feelings.  There was still no guarantee that Ratchet liked him the same way. If Ratchet didn’t share those feelings working together - being stuck in this base, that would make life awkward for the two of them.

_ I love you _

It was best to continue the way they were, colleagues.  Nothing more. Maybe once the war was over Optimus would attempt to confess his feelings to the medic, but right now they had a war to win, there shouldn’t be any distractions.

“I believe it is time for you to take a break.  I will wait up for Bulkhead and Arcee to get back from patrol.  You have done a lot today old friend.”

Ratchet smiles and it sends his systems running a bit hotter than he would like.  Any moment his fans were going to kick on but hopefully he could muffle the noise enough so Ratchet wouldn’t catch on.  “I think I might take you up on that offer. Thank you Optimus.”

Optimus nods as he watches Ratchet retreat to his own quarters, sighing when he steps inside.  

Ratchet leans against the wall. “I love you, you idiot,” he mumbles.


End file.
